Board committee approves interim budget and salary ordinances to maintain services in July

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee on Wednesday approved interim appropriation and salary ordinances to maintain city operations at the start of the fiscal year.

Chair Mark Farrell said the measures are routine steps to "contemplate our budget process." City Controller Ben Rosenfield told the committee that the ordinances are "largely ministerial" and required by the city charter to cover the month of July until final budgets take effect later in the summer.

City attorney staff recommended two targeted amendments to the draft ordinances. The recommendations would remove a provision that would allow the controller to reallocate funds within a department without Board appropriation approval and would delete language that would permit the director of human resources to authorize new positions providing services to the Office of Community Investment (OCI) without Board appropriation approval. The attorney urged the Board to approve the interim ordinances with those changes and to review any proposed new positions during the forthcoming annual budget process.

Committee members moved and seconded the recommendation and advanced items 4 through 7, as amended, to the full Board without objection.

The motions cover the citywide interim appropriation ordinance for fiscal years 2015–16 and 2016–17, the interim annual salary ordinance for the same period, the interim budget for the Treasure Island Development Authority, and the interim budget for the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure acting as successor to the redevelopment agency. Formal adoption of the final budgets will occur later this summer, with the interim measures ensuring continuity of services for July.